The Ottawa Public Health board put forward a list of 33 recommendations to go to the federal government’s legalization task force, including one that would see the minimum age for cannabis purchase set at 25.
“The regulations for purchasing and possessing marijuana must be coupled with rigorous enforcement and penalties for violations in order to be effective,” the document reads.
The group also suggests that the development of a “federal legislative framework that sets a minimum age for sale or provision that is consistent across all provinces and territories.”
Among the group’s other suggestions include setting a maximum amount individuals are legally allowed to possess at any time, setting prices based on THC content as well as a maximum level of THC legally allowed to be sold.
The OPH would like to see the federal government develop national standard for production, packaging, storage, distribution and testing of cannabis products, based on public health principles and calls for the government to “expand regulation to a wider variety of cannabis products (e.g., edibles, concentrates, and tinctures), so that all forms of cannabis are regulated.”
The group would also like to see a federally controlled distribution system in the form of a series of store fronts, long with the regulation of all cannabis paraphernalia.
If the recommendations are followed, cannabis users would also see a “comprehensive ban of the consumption of marijuana in workplaces and indoor and outdoor public spaces at the federal level.”
The document was presented to the federal cannabis legalization task force this summer. The task force will present its own recommendations to the government at the end of November.